I met Samuel Zavala and his family at their farm El Cambalache many years ago and I bought his coffee since. Some of you might have tried coffee from their other farm La Picona. When I herd that El Cambalache ended up on 4th place in Cup of Excellence this year I just had to bid on the coffee. I know how important the competition is for the farmers, and I do love myself some excellent coffee. A true win-win.

El Cambalache is located in Dipilto on an elevation of 1350-1450 meters. The farm has been in the family for 10 years. Samuel inherited the farm two years ago and started to develop the farm and mill. The farm was initially planted with Maracaturra variety, but Samuel implement new varieties to diversify his farm. Samuel have tried out different process methods as part of quality improvement on the farm. In this lot he used anaerobic fermentation. This means that the beans rest in closed buckets after pulping, for 60 hours in this case, before the mucilage is washed of and beans try on raised beds. The cup is clean and elegant, with almond, apple, plum, green grapes, fudge and cacao in the cup. Sounds tasty? It is.

The orange on the bag is a symbol for Samuels quiet place on the farm. There is an orange tree in an open space among the coffee shrubs where Samuel can take a break and rest when he needs to.